4/Sep/22 Watched. IMAX.
My rating: 9/10.
I received some money yesterday so, naturally, I opened the Book my Show app on my phone and began browsing. To my disappointment, Jordan Peele's Nope and George Miller's Three Thousand Years of Longing were no longer playing in Lucknow. But, in the pages of history, every once in a while, fate reaches out and extends it's hand; E.T: The Extra Terrestrial was released in celebration of it's 40th anniversary.
When I was in kindergarten, we had a DVD which had 3 films: E.T. (1982), Koi Mil Gaya (2003) and Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004). Now, Baby Geniuses 2 was clearly the best movie by a mile, considering its of the Citizen Kane caliber. And apparently, Koi Mil Gaya, a Bollywood rip off of E.T., was apparently the first movie that I'd "watched" in cinemas. I say that in quotations because it had released on 08/08/03, just a few days before my first birthday which was on the 23rd.
Anyways, since I loved Koi Mil Gaya, I tried watching ET back when I was 5 or 6. The opening scene, with it's night time forest, the landed UFO and the alien's finger pulling on a branch scared me so much that I ejected the disc and put on Spider-Man instead.
And ever since I crossed the age of 16, I assumed it was a cheesy kids' movie so I never really came around to it. Who knew that they'd have to release it in the IMAX format for me to watch it. And man, was it worth it! Especially since it costed half the price of admission in comparison to a new release. (255rs and 455-550rs).
So lets talk about the movie itself now.
Directed by Steven Spielberg and shot by Allen Daviau, the film opens with the titular character of alien origins being left behind on Earth by his companions as the government agents try and hunt the aliens down. Frightened, alone and looking for a shelter, ET stumbles into a family's backyard where he meets Elliot. The young boy, whose father recently left him, his elder brother, younger sister and mom, befriends the alien and takes him in to protect him and find out where he came from.
But, at its core, the story is about losing a father.
Now, as far as I know, Spielberg didn't have the happiest childhood. His family kept moving from place to place, which did expose him to all types of people but it costed him the stability a young mind needs (or does it need it?). Even though his mother indulged in his creative pursuits, his father, who prioritized his work above anything else, never appreciated his son until he heard his coworkers praising his films. He was at all times distant, to say the least. And if that wasn't enough, arguments between his parents escalated so much in his teens that Steven remembers bunching up towels under his door to keep out the shouts and screams of them. Soon, when his mother fell in love with one of his father's friends, they separated. Spielberg was 19. And he was estranged from his father for the next 15 years.
Whether it be Jaws (1975), Jurassic Park (1993) or Catch Me If You Can (2002), themes of the broken home can be traced in his filmography. Out of the films that I've watched, its most perceptible in E.T and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977); two films that Spielberg made within 5-8 years that revolved around the concept of alien life.
In Close Encounters, after receiving telepathic signals from a UFO, Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) who is a father and a husband, gets obsessed with trying to contact the aliens and ignores his family. Similarly, in CMIYC, Frank's parents are shown in an argumentative marriage because his father has lead his family in debt. Spielberg creates this warm household which was absent in his childhood time and again in his movies and showcases either their collapse or their journey to healing themselves.
There's lovely scene n Jaws where, being tensed with his obsession of catching the killer shark which is on the loose and saving the lives of the people of his town, Brody is sitting with his son at the dinner table and to uplift the somber atmosphere, they begin mimicking each other's body language. That same scene is used in E.T when E.T mimics Elliot's movements. But its taken up a notch in it as we see later on in the film during the school scene, that Elliot experiences all of E.T's states of mind. A drunk father at home explains why the boy is acting out at school.
Yes, E.T is obviously the dad. The dad who left. And when he came back home, he wasn't the same. He had to learn everything once again. Through his child, the world was anew. A man becomes a stranger in a strange land when he becomes a father. Why does the dad die? Cancer? Alzheimers? It doesn't matter. What matters is that he lives on in his child.
The acceptance of responsibility leads to happiness in Spielberg's films. Both in E.T. and Jurassic Park, we see characters accepting fatherhood; Sam Neil's character in JP and E.T. in E.T. Even Oscar Schindler takes up the responsibility of saving as many lives as he can.
Another thing which I like about this film is that it has that inspiring flare of 80s' feminism, the kind you see in Dragoti's Mr Mom (1983), in the form of Dee Wallace who plays Elliot's mom. She exuberates with energy in all of her scenes and carries the emotional weight of the story. Her chemistry with the kids were great too.
When talking about the technical side of the film, I've got absolutely no complaints. The animatronics, the special effects, the VFX, the sound mixing, the cinematography, the compositions, the palette... everything is just perfect. And of course, whenever John Williams partnered up with Spielberg, we've seen wonders happen.
I its a cliche to say it but I'm gonna say it anyway: Steven Spielberg's movies encapsulate those warm, fuzzy feelings that you used to have as a kid. That childlike wonder is rare in cinema and I'm glad that Steven is here to capture it. And E.T. made me sob like a child... or an animal.
Who knew that my first Spielberg at the theaters would be one of his classics! We need revival theaters in Lucknow!
